Officials in the US intel community tell the AP far-right website Zero Hedge is a front for a Russian disinformation operation, a development that is surprising to approximately zero people with even a passing familiarity with the site’s batshittery and obnoxious rAnDomLY cAsED hEaDLinEs.

Intel sources cited a specific source on Zero Hedge, the “Strategic Culture Foundation” as being operated by the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service. The Strategic Culture Foundation is already subject to sanctions by the Biden Administration for its interference in the 2020 election, something Zero Hedge’s editors were unaware of, claiming there “is no relationship between Strategic Cultural Foundation (or the SVR) and Zero Hedge, and furthermore this is the first time we hear someone allege that the Foundation is linked to Russian propaganda. They are one of our hundreds of contributors – unlike Mainstream Media, we try to publish a wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story,” as if Zero Hedge carries articles from Slate or MSNBC.

The City of New York government has sent termination notices to more than 1,400 city government employees who have refused to adhere to the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, Politico reports.  The city employs about 325,000 workers, meaning less than one-half of one percent did not comply with the mandate.

Of the 1,430, two were dismissed because they were new hires who had not submitted their proofs of vaccination; the rest were longer term employees who opted out of the city-run health care program and were put on unpaid leave for not getting a vaccine.

“Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. “Out of all the new city employees who received notices two weeks ago, only two who worked last week are no longer employed by the city. I’m grateful to all the city workers who continue to serve New Yorkers and ‘Get Stuff Done’ for the greatest city in the world.”

For the first time, an armorer has settled a civil lawsuit brought by survivors of a gun attack, with Remington agreeing to a settlement with the survivors of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, ABC News reports.

Adam Lanza, 20 years old at the time, used an unmodified Bushmaster XM15-E2S semiautomatic rifle to kill twenty students aged seven or eight and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  Lanza committed suicide before being captured.

The lawsuit alleges that the massacre would not have been so deadly had Lanza not had the Remington rifle, which is the manufacturer’s version of an AR-15 assault rifle, and that Remington was negligent in marketing a military-grade rifle to civilians. 

Republican Kentucky state House members are working on a bill exempting private aircraft from from state and local property taxes, just days after voting to cut unemployment insurance benefits, the Lexington Herald Leader reports. In 2020 taxes on such aircraft raised roughly $50,000 for the state treasury and about $2.5 million for school districts, cities, counties and other jurisdictions.

Dipshit Republican House member Jonathan Dixon said the measure “is aimed at making our commonwealth more competitive in attracting the smaller single- and double-engine aircraft that drive business at our general aviation airports… This isn’t about giving someone a tax break, it is about using our resources to create jobs. The proposal would create opportunities for pilots, maintenance techs, line workers and airport staff, as well as an increased need for hanger space and rental. We’re also encouraged by the potential for indirect economic impact in the form of site business growth, construction jobs and educational opportunities.”

“To me, the juxtaposition is terrible,” said Dem Rep. Tina Bojanowski. “We’re kicking people when they’re already down, we’re reducing support for them while they’re looking for work, and then we turn right around and give rich people a break on their taxes? That’s infuriating. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve got to be pretty wealthy to own your own personal airplane.”

“Every year people with ties to a variety of extreme movements and causes kill people in the United States – the ADL Center on Extremism tracks these murders. Extremists regularly commit murders in the service of their ideology, in the service of a group or gang they may belong to, or while engaging in traditional, non-ideological criminal activities. In 2021, domestic extremists killed at least 29 people in the United States, in 19 separate incidents. This represents a modest increase from the 23 extremist-related murders documented in 2020 but is far lower than the number of murders committed in any of the five years prior (which ranged from 45 to 78).”

“The 2021 murder totals were low primarily because no high-casualty extremist-related shooting spree occurred this past year. Such sprees are the main contributor to high murder totals.
Most of the murders (26 of 29) were committed by right-wing extremists, which is usually the case. However, two killings were committed by Black nationalists and one by an Islamist extremist—the latter being the first such killing since 2018,” say the toplines of the Anti-Defamation League’s “Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2021” report, so get ready for the “BuT wHaT AboUT ChiCAgO?!?!?1?!” and “The ADL is the REAL hate group” bullshit from the fanboys annoyed over being called out rightfully for the bloodshed of their side’s violent war on American democracy.

Far-right racist French Presdential candidate Eric Zemmour’s campaign told French news outlets the Donald called him to encourage his challenge to incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, Politico EU reports. “Donald Trump told Eric Zemmour ‘never give in, hold on, be brave, it’s tenacity and endurance that end up paying at the end of a campaign,'” Zemmour’s spokesman Guillaume Peltier told France 2. Peltier separately told BFMTV the Fat Orange Bastard warned Zemmour on the call that “The media will think you are brutal, don’t give in.”

Trump’s team have not confirmed the call, but it wouldn’t be especially surprising if Donald were to endorse Zemmour publicly, as last month he did so for Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban’s reelection campaign. Zemmour, a former TV host in the mold of Tucker Carlson who uses all the same tropes about a nation in decline because of Muslim immigrants and identity politics, has been charged and convicted of inciting racial or religious hatred with his comments three times – the most recent coming last month. Despite being the son of Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Algeria himself, Zemmour is an apologist for the World War II Vichy regime, having published a book in 2014 which sought to exonerate Philippe Pétain and other collaborators for the deportation of French Jews to Holocaust death camps in Nazi Germany. So definitely Trump’s kind of guy.

Hudson, Ohio Mayor Craig Shubert, who became a national laughingstock after he claimed ice fishing invites prostitution, resigned Monday amid the mockery, NBC News reports. My comments at Tuesday’s workshop were made out of concern for our community; what could become of unintended consequences of new legislation, based on my prior television news reporting experience. My attempt to inject a bit of dry humor to make a point about this, in the midst of a cold, snowy February, was grossly misunderstood,” Shubert said in a statement.

Last week, during a discussion over whether to permit ice fishing in the city, Shubert had said he wanted to share some “data points,” and then went into the bizarre rant. “Does someone come back next year and say, ‘I want an ice shanty on Hudson Springs Park for x amount of time?'” Shubert said. “And if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem – prostitution. Now you’ve got the police chief and the police department involved.”

Russia announced Tuesday some military units participating in exercises near the Ukrainian border would begin returning to their bases, the AP reports, a possible sign of hope that – if they’re telling the truth – could mean a deescalation of the crisis.

“The Alberta RCMP recently became aware of a small organized group within the larger Coutts protest. Information was received that this group had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition. The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade. This resulted in an immediate and complex investigation to determine the extent of the threat and criminal organization.”

“As a result of this investigation, the Alberta RCMP executed a search warrant during the early hours of Feb. 14, on three trailers associated to this criminal organization. This resulted in the arrest and detainment of 11 individuals. As result of these search warrants, the following was seized: 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armour, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition, high capacity magazines,” says the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a statement.

“Whoa, that’s what they seized? We call that the fucking slowest Monday ever around here,” said an agent at an FBI field office in West Texas. Well, we made that part up. But they would say that.

This is tyrannical and evil. Hold the line, don't stop honking!https://t.co/QdnnzxZIcL

— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) February 15, 2022

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday the US government’s recent suspension on avocado imports is part of a conspiracy against his country by high level political and economic interests just before the Super Bowl, the Associated Press reports.

López Obrador downplayed it a bit, saying his country’s tasty avocados had already made their way into the fourth or fifth layer of seven layer dips nationwide. “The truth, the Mexican avocados have already been exported. They already enjoyed the avocados,” López Obrador said at a news briefing, before his bluster shifted to anger. “In all of this there are also a lot of political interests and political interests, there is competition; they don’t want Mexican avocados to get into the United States, right, because it would rule in the United States because of its quality,” López Obrador said, without explaining what those interests were, but noted ominously, “There are other countries that are interested in selling avocados, as in the case of other farm products, so they lobby, they look for senators, professional (PR) people and agencies, to put up obstacles.”

Mesa County, Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the QAnon freak and Mike Lindell acolyte famous for her moronic attempt to “expose” Dominion tabulation equipment and arrest last week for recording a court proceeding, announced on Steve Bannon’s show on Monday she’s running for Colorado Secretary of State, the Washington Post reports. “Colorado deserves a secretary of state who will stand up to the Biden administration… And, Steve, that’s why today I’m announcing that I’m running for Colorado secretary of state,” Peters said Monday. Peters is facing an array of lawsuits over her batfuckery and also reportedly under federal criminal investigation for tampering with election equipment, but it’s not like that’s stopped other Republicans from running for office before.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he is enacting the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history to support Ontario in clearing out the right wing anti-vax assholes occupying the nation’s capital city Ottawa. Trudeau said the act will be limited in scale and he will not call in the military or to override the charter, the CBC reports.

And the hits just keep on coming….  Florida vigilante killer George Zimmerman’s case against his victim’s family for defamation and conspiracy was thrown out of court by a state judge Monday, WTVJ NBC-6 in South Florida reports.

Zimmerman sued Trayvon Martin’s parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin; attorney Ben Crump, who had represented the family; and others, claiming that they had slandered him by falsely portraying him as a murderer in the media.  Judge John Cooper ruled that Zimmerman and his attorneys failed to show any fraudulent representation in their case.  “There can be no claim for conspiracy to defraud if there is no adequately stated claim for fraud,” Cooper said.

Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin after stalking him while Martin cut through a Sanford, Florida residential community to get to his father’s girlfriend’s home after going to a convenience store for Skittles and iced tea.  Zimmerman claimed Martin jumped out from behind non-existent bushes and ambushed him, prompting him to draw a gun and kill Martin.  Zimmerman was acquitted of murder at a criminal trial.

Thanks to Kazo for the tip.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the judge in Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Times plans to dismiss the case with prejudice, finding that Palin and her attorneys did not provide enough evidence to prove their case.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff announced his decision Monday, but will wait until the jury comes back with verdicts before recording his decision.  If the jury comes back with a verdict in favor of Palin, Rakoff indicated he would set aside that decision.  While it’s unusually for a judge to allow the jury to continue deliberating after he’s determined there’s insufficient cause to continue with the case, a verdict for the Times by the jury would likely prevent a future case on the same grounds and halt any appeals.

Palin sued the Times in 2017, alleging that an editorial published by the Times improperly linked her and a website for her PAC to the assassination attempt on Democratic Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.  However, once it was made aware of the issues regarding the citation, the Times issues a correction and removed the assertion.

Accounting firm Mazars sent a letter to the Trump organization dealing a double blow to the family:  first, Mazars essentially fired the Trump Organization as a client due to a “non-waivable conflict of interest” with the Trump company.  Second, it announced to the world that the information it provided on Trump’s behalf isn’t an accurate accounting of his financial situation.  (In other words, he could be broke.)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce on Monday he will invoke Emergency Act powers and bring in the military to support Ontario in clearing out the right wing anti-vax assholes occupying the nation’s capital city Ottawa, GlobalNews.ca reports. Trudeau will hold a press conference at 4:30 PM EST on Monday and is expected to make the announcement then. Half a century ago Trudeau’s father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act’s predecessor, the War Measures Act, suspending civil liberties and instituting martial law during a series of terrorist attacks by Quebecois separatists who may or may not have received support from French intelligence agents on orders from Charles de Gaulle.

The newer Emergency Act allows for the federal cabinet to “regulate or prohibit public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace, travel, or the use of property,” and “impose on summary conviction a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both, or on indictment, a fine not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both, for any breach of an order or regulation,” among other measures, which sure sounds an awful lot like Trudeau is imposing actual martial law here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in a Facebook post he’s “been informed” Wednesday, February 16 “will be the day of the attack,” calls for a national public holiday called the Day of Unity. “On this day we will put up our national flags, wear blue and yellow ribbons and show the whole world our unity,” CNN’s Jim Sciutto reports.

UPDATE 2/14/22 2:41 PM EST: Zelensky apparently was being sarcastic, according to Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs. “Ukraine’s Zelenskiy spooks markets with what appeared to be a sarcastic comment about the rest of the world predicting a date for a Russian attack, which he said should be a day of unity instead,” tweeted Jacobs.